U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon blocked the public release of former special counsel Jack Smith's report on his investigation into whether President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents after his first term in the White House.
In an order filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Cannon wrote that the report should not be released outside of the Justice Department "due to the unlawful appointment of Special Counsel Smith and Attorney General Bondi’s deliberative-process determination."
Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote that Smith and his team prepared the report for months after she dismissed the classified documents case in July 2024, ruling that his appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. The Justice Department under President Joe Biden appealed that ruling, with then-Attorney General Merrick Garland telling NBC News that Smith's appointment was constitutional and valid.
Cannon's ruling Monday contended that Smith "accelerated efforts" after her order until he left the DOJ in January 2025 to prepare and finalize the report "utilizing discover materials generated in this case."
An appeals court found in 2022 that Cannon "improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction" in connection with the Mar-a-Lago search, and her opinions have been widely critiqued as extraordinarily deferential to the president who nominated her.
Cannon said that a protective order issued in June 2023 prevents any discovery materials from being disclosed publicly unless approved by the court.
She also argued that it is "not customary" for a prosecutor to release a report containing large amounts of evidence after a criminal prosecution is "dismissed in a final order without an adjudication of guilt."
Cannon said that in December 2024, “as the Presidential Transition neared, defense counsel for Trump learned through media reports that Special Counsel Smith and his team planned to release Volume II to select members of Congress.”
Cannon, however, barred the DOJ from sharing the report with lawmakers in January 2025. She said that the report contained “detailed and voluminous” information outlining the case against Trump, much of which “has not been made public in court filings."
Smith, who launched a new law firm with other partners last month, said during a closed-door deposition before Congress in December that his team produced “powerful evidence that showed Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in Jan. 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place.”
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He told lawmakers that Trump “repeatedly tried to obstruct justice” to keep secret his retention of classified documents found during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
A representative for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chioma Chukwu, executive director of nonprofit watchdog American Oversight, criticized Cannon's ruling in a statement, saying it "continues a troubling pattern of decisions that shield the president from public scrutiny and place secrecy above the public’s right to know."
"This sweeping order once again gives the president exactly what he wanted — continued concealment of the factual record underlying the historic investigation into his misconduct," Chukwu said. "American taxpayers funded this investigation, and they have a right to know what their government uncovered, particularly on matters of national security."
Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight Institute, a free speech advocacy group, said Cannon’s decision "to permanently block the release of this extraordinarily significant report is impossible to square with the First Amendment and the common law. There is no legitimate basis for its continued suppression.”
Kendra Wharton, an attorney for Trump, said Cannon "properly granted" Trump's motion block the report's release. "Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed and his unlawful investigation was improperly funded with tens of millions of U.S. taxpayers’ hard earned dollars," she said. "Any and all fruit of Smith’s poisonous tree should be treated accordingly and should never see the light of day.”
As special counsel during the Biden administration, Smith also oversaw the federal 2020 election interference investigation, which led to four felony charges. That case was also dismissed after more than a year of legal challenges and Trump's re-election as president.
